Here are the facts, Bolt
October 8, 2005
In the lastest salvo in the climate change debate, scientist Tim Flannery says the "errors" Andrew Bolt discovered in his book are, in fact, howlers on the columnist's part.
A WRITER named Andrew Bolt has recently published two articles (Herald Sun, September 28, October 5) calling into question my integrity, as well as that of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. He claims to have discovered errors in my book, The Weather Makers: The History and Future Impact of Climate Change, and that I have "a green hatred of our industrialised society". He also seems infuriated that I have ignored him and refused to say sorry.
The "errors" that Bolt supposedly discovers in my work, extracted in The Age, are in fact howlers on his part. Indeed, so egregious are some that it's hard to believe that Bolt has not set out to mislead his readers. Let's look at five of the biggest whoppers.
1 Bolt says that I claim that climate has been stable for the past 10,000 years. This is not so. In my book I reprint the graph that documents northern hemisphere climate variability over the past 1000 years, and enter into an extended discussion of well-known variations such as the Medieval Warm Period. Either Bolt has not read the book he is critiquing, or he is lying through his teeth. The point I do make, however, is that variability in average global temperature over the past 10,000 years has been small when compared with earlier periods. This is indisputable.
2 Bolt accuses me of saying that Katrina was the most powerful hurricane on record. Katrina is not mentioned in my book, which went to press before Katrina and Rita devastated the Gulf Coast. ...
3 Bolt denies that President George Bush acknowledges that humans are causing global warming. The G8 leaders (including Bush) who convened at Gleneagles earlier this year signed a communique that stated: "Climate change is a serious and long-term challenge that has the potential to affect every part of the globe. We know that increased need and use of fossil fuels, and other human activities, contribute in large part to increases in greenhouse gases associated with the warming of our Earth's surface. While uncertainties remain in our understanding of climate science, we know enough to act now to put ourselves on a path to slow and, as the science justifies, stop then reverse the growth of greenhouse gases."
4 ... hurricanes and cyclones
... Suffice to say here that hurricanes require warm seawater to form, ... for the past few years the Gulf of Mexico has been warmer than 28 degrees through the hurricane season, which explains why hurricanes passing over these waters become supercharged and so dangerous....
5 In his second article, Bolt becomes confused about timelines and temperature, and inadvertently adds weight to the argument that global warming is liable to lead to large sea-level rises. ... Bolt's insight suggests that we might have already committed the planet to rises in sea level of about this magnitude. I hope he is wrong.
Bolt declares that I have a green hatred for our industrialised society. In my book I point out the dangers to the Australian economy of ignoring climate change, and also the opportunities for wealth creation inherent in the shift to the new low-emissions economy. The smart money is already on gas and the renewables, and all that is holding back a wealth-boom based on geothermal energy, gas, wind and solar is good government policy. Australia is exceptionally rich in these resources, and so stands to gain more than most other nations from making the shift. I don't doubt that Bolt loves our industrialised society as much as I do, but his deception on climate change threatens to damage our future wealth and wellbeing.
...
Andrew Bolt appears not to know the first thing about climate change or that the debate has moved on: now everyone from BP to SwissRe has ceased arguing about the reality of climate change, and is now focused on what should be done about it.